Marriages, age, dispensation...
Women must find a husband, as Daphne Bridgerton says (The Bridgerton Chronicle – Netflix – December 2020):
"(...) If I'm unable to find a husband, I'll be useless (...)".
This problem becomes complicated for the youngest siblings. For example, with the Davids, Madeleine, the last born in 1902, remained single.
Among the Morellons, Raymonde, the last born in 1890, remained single until 1939 to marry at 48 years old.
Age at marriage.
We investigated, from all the registers acts of La Rochette (Saint-Pardoux – La Rochette, Creuse) between 1712 and 1791 the ages of the two bride and groom, when they had been correctly written down by the officiating priest. This is a global study, not just among our ancestors.
For these 92 unions, we obtain the following results:
| Average age at marriage | Minimum age at marriage | Maximum age at marriage | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women | 25 years | 12 years and one month | 45 years (widowed) | 16% are under 16 and 10% are under 14 |
| Men | 28 years | 14 years and four months | 70 yearss (widower) |
By way of comparison, for the Morellon family (Bord, Lhomet, Morellon, Mounille, Naute...), for the same period (32 unions), we obtain:
| Average age at marriage | Minimum age at marriage | Maximum age at marriage | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women | 24 years | 15 years | 45 years old (widowed) | 40% are 20 and under |
| Men | 26 years | 18 years | 45 years old (widower)) | 9% are under 20 |
Before the revolution, the minimum age for marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys, these limits coming directly from Roman laws.
The minimums were then raised to 15 for girls and 18 for boys in 1803.
For the entire population of trees, here is what we find for ages at marriage:
Dispensations.
Under the old regime, the rules of marriage imposed various constraints which must be verified
by the celebrant priest.
Some of these rules may give rise to dispensations, in particular those related to possible consanguinity for
Sometimes the dispensation has to be approved by officials in Rome, through a local ecclesiastical judge.
This is the case for Anne Lhomet and Pierre Tartari married on April 30, 1765 in La Rochette.
Here is the act written by the parish priest of La Rochette, Deneupus:
"The thirtieth of April seventeen sixty-five given the fulmination of the Brief of our Holy Father Pope Clement obtained by Pierre Tartari and Anne Lhoumet to be exempted from the impediment of affinity (*) in the third degree.
The said fulmination was made by Mr. Mourellon, official of Chénérailes, on the twentieth of April of this present year, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five.
After the engagement and the publication of the Banns of marriage made at the sermons of our parish masses on the first, the second and the third Sunday after Easter which were the fourteenth, the twenty-first and the twenty-eighth of the month of April of this same year between the said Pierre Tartari, widower of Marie Galland, a laborer living in the village of Satagnac, with the said Anne Lhoumet daughter of Philippe Lhoumet sacristan and Françoise Mounille his father and his mother from the village of Ceyva, all of this parish without opposition and having found no impediment, I, the undersigned parish priest, after having received their mutual consent, have solemnly conjoined them in marriage by given words". Right page 2nd paragraph
(*)
Parents by affinity means parents by marriage.
